World Nuclear Association Blog

The 2011 International Nuclear Energy Olympiad was held this week in Seoul. Ten finalist teams presented their Plans for Gaining Public Acceptance of Nuclear Power in their country. Three were from countries not yet having nuclear power. All were students, in teams of two, most ranging in age from 19 to 26.

The judging panel comprised two eminent academics from South Korea, one person from WNU, and one from WNA. (Dr SoonHeung Chang, Dr ChangSup Choi, Mr Francois Perchet and Ian Hore-Lacy).

The result was very close, but Canada took top prize narrowly from South Korea and Turkey. Following up were Malaysia, Russia and India. Each had to present a paper, then a 15-minute Powerpoint and answer questions from the judges. The presentations were closely geared to the cultural and social situations in each country, and were expected to do more than suggesting new ways to communicate facts.

The Olympiad was initiated and hosted by the Korean Nuclear Energy Promotion Agency (KONEPA) and put on under the auspices of the World Nuclear University.

WNA's Ian Emsley recently participate in an IAEA meeting on prospects of extracting uranium from phosphate rocks. The well-attended meeting attested to a high level of interest in this subject. The current availability of uranium from conventional resources led to the conclusion that it could be some time before phosphates because a major source of uranium, but the potential for such resources was huge. You can find out more about this subject in our information paper Uranium from Phosphates.